GARGOYLE SPORTS VIDEO: UNI GIRLS WIN TUSCOLA INVITATIONAL

TUSCOLA — The fourth-ranked Uni girls cross country team won four of the top eight spots Saturday morning at the Tuscola Invitational, easily winning the meet title for the second consecutive year.

Senior Michelle Mehnert led the team with a fourth-place finish, running the 3.1-mile Wimple Park course in 19 minutes, 59 seconds. Senior Reagan Aylmer of Central A&M won the meet with a time of 19:14.

The Illineks again demonstrated that they might very well have the strongest top four runners in Class 1A. Sophomore Elizabeth Russell followed Mehnert with a fifth-place finish (20:19), senior Shivani Khanna was right behind in sixth (20:22), and junior Elaine Gu rounded out the pack in eighth (20:39). Only 40 seconds separated the foursome.

The team again competed without injured No. 5 runner Jennifer Roloff. In her place sophomore Isaure Hostetter closed out Uni's scoring with a 19th-place performance (21:53). Hostetter's classmate Katherine Allen beat out Tri Valley's Brennin Kelley with a determined dash at the end to finish 22nd (22:07.3).

All six of Uni's top runners went home with trophies on Saturday, which were awarded to everyone in the top 25. Two other Illineks, sophomore Brittany Scheid (62nd, 24:31) and senior Samantha Nguyen (63rd, 24:33) won medals for placing in the top 75.

Twelve teams and 116 runners competed in this year's meet. Uni topped the field with 39 points; Central A&M was a distant second with 66.

The Illineks won the 2006 event, also featuring 12 teams, with 56 points. So this year's performance marked a 17-point improvement.

Mehnert remained consistent — she placed fourth last year as well. But the other members of Uni's top four moved up: Khanna was eighth last year, Russell ninth, and Gu 12th. Nguyen, who is working her way back from an ACL injury she suffered in basketball, was Uni's fifth runner in the 2006 meet, placing 28th.

Perhaps the most encouraging news to come out of Saturday's contest was the narrowing gap between Uni's No. 1 and No. 5 spots. Last year the 1-5 split was 2:12; this year it was 1:54.

For the boys, meanwhile, Nathan Smith won a trophy for placing in the top 25. The sophomore ran the course in 17:40 to finish 22nd.

Winning medals were junior Isaac Chambers (31st, 18:10), senior Jacob Olshansky (34th, 18:14), and senior Carl Zielinski (57th, 19:11). Sophomore Danny Ge closed out the scoring for Uni (76th, 19:48), missing out on a medal by one spot and 4 seconds.

The Illineks were without three of their top runners for various reasons, including the need to take the ACT: senior Austin Rundus, freshman Buck Walsh, and junior Malcolm Taylor, who placed sixth at the 2006 meet.

But even without this trio, the Illineks signficantly outdid their 2006 performance. This year they finished sixth out of 16 scoring teams, with 198 points. A year ago they placed 12th out of 15 teams, with 279 points.

Monticello won this year's meet, narrowly outpacing Freeburg 65-68.

Individually, Smith and Zielinski improved their placings dramatically: Smith went from 73rd to 22nd, while Zielinski rose from 82nd to 57th.

Head coach Doug Mynatt said he expects to have his full team, including Taylor, ready to compete Saurday at the St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic.

Before then, both the boys and girls teams will compete Tuesday in a quad meet at Monticello. The girls are scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.